The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has founded the Kerberos Consortium with the aim of enhancing the Kerberos authentication protocol to provide a universal authentication method on open networks.

To achieve this, the Consortium is looking to take an active part in software development and to provide documentation. The immediate objective is to implement Kerberos in Open Source reference solutions. The companies and organisations involved will be able to use the reference solution without paying license fees. Consortium members include Google, Sun and various universities. Apple will also be providing a financial contribution.

The Kerberos network authentication protocol was developed as part of the Athena project at MIT in the early eighties. The aim was to create a computer network with up to 80,000 workplaces and to give end users the ability to access the same files und services with a consistent look & feel from any workplace.

Version number 5.1.6.2 of the Kerberos authentication software by MIT, who implemented the protocol, is available from the Kerberos page on the MIT website. Other implementations, which build on Kerberos, include the Shishi and Heimdal authentication services.